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Dessert

Blamange Rubane, Or, Striped Blamange

A colored gelatin dessert made by dividing blamange into portions and adding spinach juice, cochineal, saffron, egg yolks, milk, or chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 149 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Blamange Rubane, Or, Striped Blamange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the blamange

  1. Prepare blamange in the usual way, making it a little firmer.

  2. Divide the blamange into three or four equal portions.

Colour the portions

  1. To one portion, add enough prepared spinach juice to achieve the desired green color.

  2. To another portion, mix in liquid cochineal or carmine for red color.

  3. For a third portion, add a few drops of strong saffron infusion or mix boiling blamange with well-beaten egg yolks.

  4. Thicken the egg mixture over gentle heat with 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk.

  5. For additional color, mix in smooth, boiled chocolate.

  6. Ensure all portions are of similar consistency to prevent separation when unmoulding.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Spinach + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Saffron + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Spinach + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blamange
Forms the set gelatinous body that holds the coloured layers in shape.
Fresh egg yolks
Thicken the portion as they set, adding richness and a creamy texture.
Milk
Dilutes and smooths the egg mixture so it thickens gently without curdling.
Chocolate
Adds deeper brown colour and a mild cocoa flavour to its portion.

The step that matters

Ensure all portions are of similar consistency. If one portion is softer or runnier than the others, the layers may separate or smear when the set gelatin is unmoulded, so each portion should be firm and of similar thickness.

Swap the saffron

The recipe marks saffron as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, egg, milk, chocolate):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Saffronthe original
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, egg, milk, chocolate. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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